Ahem, dear Hello Games, was it too difficult to post...I don't know, a couple months ago, something along the lines of "ok, we've just started creating content for this update we're going to call "foundation": our current plan is to give you bi-weekly updates about our progress", instead, you know, of the total silence that we got. Doesn't seem rocket science to me.

I loaded it up last night, started building a base with all the shiny stuff. Attached one component and then realised to build a bigger base I needed to mine for more stuff, in order to mine I required a better mining laser, in order to upgrade my mining laser I required a better ship .. that's when I logged off.

I'm going to escape, come back, wipe this place off the face of the Earth, obliterate it and you with it.

I loaded it up last night, started building a base with all the shiny stuff. Attached one component and then realised to build a bigger base I needed to mine for more stuff, in order to mine I required a better mining laser, in order to upgrade my mining laser I required a better ship .. that's when I logged off.

I don't know why she swallowed the fly...

"I want to watch it all burn in an orgy of smashed Coke machines and weasel rape." - HaemishM

What I mean is, you're damned if you do or damned if you don't. So don't waste the time, just make the game you want to make and let it speak for itself. The only feedback metric that matters is profit.

Obviously they're doing well enough to continue to develop content for the game, so good for them.

I want to give this another chance so I started a survival game. I spawned on an ice planet, over seven minutes away from my ship. I die from exposure in about three minutes.

Let's generate another start:

Even colder, 12 minutes away. So am I supposed to cockstab for hours trying to stockpile minerals to keep me alive to get to the ship, at which point I can cockstab again to fix it?

Reading the internet, this is indeed the case. You have to jump between shelters and caves, so that means reroll a new planet until you get one where survival is possible. Resource drain and rarity is an order of magnitude worse, so all you ever do is mine stuff to do even the smallest thing. Basically survival is an unplayable mode.

I want to give this another chance so I started a survival game. I spawned on an ice planet, over seven minutes away from my ship. I die from exposure in about three minutes.

Let's generate another start:

Even colder, 12 minutes away. So am I supposed to cockstab for hours trying to stockpile minerals to keep me alive to get to the ship, at which point I can cockstab again to fix it?

Reading the internet, this is indeed the case. You have to jump between shelters and caves, so that means reroll a new planet until you get one where survival is possible. Resource drain and rarity is an order of magnitude worse, so all you ever do is mine stuff to do even the smallest thing. Basically survival is an unplayable mode.

Couldn't you just tunnel over to your ship to stay out of the elements? Or at least tunnel to recharge then dash again? I dunno how it works though as I have not played it for a few months...busy with my black Friday purchases.

"I want to watch it all burn in an orgy of smashed Coke machines and weasel rape." - HaemishM

I want to give this another chance so I started a survival game. I spawned on an ice planet, over seven minutes away from my ship. I die from exposure in about three minutes.

Let's generate another start:

Even colder, 12 minutes away. So am I supposed to cockstab for hours trying to stockpile minerals to keep me alive to get to the ship, at which point I can cockstab again to fix it?

Reading the internet, this is indeed the case. You have to jump between shelters and caves, so that means reroll a new planet until you get one where survival is possible. Resource drain and rarity is an order of magnitude worse, so all you ever do is mine stuff to do even the smallest thing. Basically survival is an unplayable mode.

Couldn't you just tunnel over to your ship to stay out of the elements? Or at least tunnel to recharge then dash again? I dunno how it works though as I have not played it for a few months...busy with my black Friday purchases.

I don't think it's possible to tunnel with the basic gear, but I could be wrong. But even like that the shelter regeneration speed is so slow that you'll be spending an hour getting to your ship, most of it waiting.

I'm just happy that I managed to get to a planet that isn't dissolving my flesh at a rapid pace. I also have a working ship, but nice planets don't seem to be overrun with plutonium, so I spend a lot of time looking for that just so I can fly around and hope to find a recipe for glass. I can make antimatter; glass seem trivial by comparison.

Why am I homeless? Why do all you motherfuckers need homes is the real question.They called it The Prayer, its answer was lawMommy come back 'cause the water's all gone

It's free advertising. There'll be a lot of media coverage. Some of it will emphasize how NMS now has some new half-assed features that weren't in at launch so some people will be tricked into buying it.

I'll have to play a bit more, but for now let me say that (at least in "normal mode") the first few hours are definitely more engaging and interesting with the addition of focused tutorial tooltips, story and gameplay features. Graphics have also improved.

Is Elite: Dangerous any good in solo mode? I have zero desire to play another MMOG right now.

You can switch between Elite's solo, private group, and open (instanced MMO) modes at any time without penalty. It's all played on the same servers even if you choose to have no-one else be able to interact with you. You can relog and be in open again whenever you like. You continue playing the same character with the same progression no matter which mode you're in.

A Reddit survey the other day (young male-skewed site which gave some otherwise weird results) found that 51% mostly play in solo.

The big warning however is that Elite Dangerous has a massive learning curve. At first you struggle to even fly your ship or land it. And you do a lot of googling and reading wikis. People who get past the curve tend to go on to play hundreds or thousands of hours. I'm at 700 hours and having a blast.

"The more we talk about less important things, the less we talk about more important things."